Downs A’s Win Shirty Battle with Jersey

The Downs A team toughed it out to make it 3 wins in a row, with a 2-1 victory over Jersey Rangers.

Truth be told, the opposition had much the better of the first half, as the Cowboys dawdled on the ball like an old man at a delicatessen, and coughed up posession too easily too many times. Jersey didn’t create a whole host of clear cut chances, but having survived a couple of near-misses Easton conceded first – Franck leaping like a salmon to make a save, only for Jersey’s centre forward to (seemingly) bundle the ball home with his hand. It was a deserved lead, but felt slightly controversial nonetheless.

Cowboys managed to go in level at the interval though, as Nathan Stokes curled home a free-kick from 20 yards. From the sidelines it looked like an absolute howler from the opposition keeper, but Nathan later insisted it was buried deeper in the corner than Audley Harrison after 3 rounds with David Haye.

After some re-organisation and honest assessment at half-time Easton were much improved after the break, much more combative right across the pitch, and always dangerous on the break. Despite not putting together a huge number of beautiful passing moves, posession and territory were much more even after the break, and having been denied one obscenely blatant penalty for something approaching GBH on Adam, Cowboys were awarded one a few minutes later, for an equally absurd challenge on Nath in the box. He stepped up and slotted it home.

Easton continued to threaten and stretch the defence on the break, but neither side really created many other clear cut chances after that, and the Cowboys (relatively) comfortably saw out the game.